ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to learn the meaning of being-a-child with cancer submitted to ambulatory treatment and using the toy library as a possibility to enable their expression about their world. Participants were seven children of ages 3 to 9 years, who had been diagnosed with some kind of childhood cancer. With the objective of learning about the meaning of these experiences to children with cancer, an analysis of these data was performed based on Martin Heidegger's existential phenomenology. The child-with-cancer showed a movement that was permeated sometimes by authenticity, when the child assumed the disease and their being-toward-death and also by the lack of authenticity, when they were influenced by the decadence attitude of their relatives and health team members. Playing provided a rich contact with the existence of these severely ill children.
Subject(s)
Neoplasms/psychology , Play and Playthings , Child , Child, Preschool , HumansABSTRACT
Objective: This study aims to evaluate the Quality of Life of patients with cancer. Methods: A Quality of Life evaluation instrument developed by The World Health Organization WHOQOL-bref, was used. The investigation had as research subjects people distributed in two groups: one composed of 50 female and male adult patients engaged in treatment for different types of cancer in the Oncology Center of Hospital Municipal Dr. Mário Gatti, Campinas/SP, Brazil, and the other composed by 70control-volunteers. Results: The groups did not present statistically significant differences regarding general psychological aspects, satisfaction with health and Quality of Life. In the final considerations, the study reaffirms the complexity, the subjective aspects and the magnitude of the concept of Quality of Life and recommends that one associates a qualitative evaluation for allowing subjective comprehension to occur.
